Gurugram may go for a limited 10-day lockdown in clusters

GURUGRAM: The Haryana government is considering imposing a limited lockdown — which could last around 10 days — in the city.
A senior government official said this had come up for discussion during chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s visit to the city last week. During discussions, the need to step up containment measures was felt. “The chief minister is quite keen on another lockdown in the city to contain the spread of the disease,” said a senior official said, requesting anonymity. Malls will be allowed to open and a decision will be taken on resumption of city bus services only after there is clarity on the matter, the official added.
The lockdown, however, is not likely to cover the entire city but be restricted to clusters, with big markets also being shut. This could mean a complete shutdown of areas that have emerged as clusters over the past month. Sources said major markets like Sadar Bazar could be shut down and the radius of containment zones could be increased so that more people there can be tested. Antigen tests began in the city on Wednesday.
The official said a couple of bureaucrats had expressed their concerns that the lockdown plan could disrupt industries and livelihoods at a time when businesses are trying to get workers back from their home towns.
Sources in BJP, meanwhile, stressed another lockdown was necessary. It would also signal that the state government was willing to take “strong decisions to save lives”, a party functionary said, adding most were in favour of such a move.
Ten days ago, state government projections had shown that Covid-19 cases in Gurugram could touch 35,000 by the end of this month, 1.5 lakh by the end of July and 2.5 lakh by August-end. If 12% of these cases need beds, then the city should have 4,200 beds by the end of June, 18,000 in July and 30,000 in August. If the share of cases that require medical attention goes up to 15%, the city will need 5,200 beds this month, 22,500 in July and 37,500 in August.
A senior official said that the situation has changed now. “We are testing around 500-600 daily. About 100 new cases are being added every day. The doubling rate has also dropped in the last 15 days. Looking at the trend, we will not have more than 7,000 cases by the end of this month. The earlier projection was based on doubling rate during the period that Gurugram was adding 200-odd cases each day,” the official said.
On Wednesday, 117 people tested positive, bringing Gurugram’s tally to 4,762. With 1,811 patients in hospital, the city accounts for 37% of Haryana’s 4,897 active cases. Though many others are recovering in home isolation, Gurugram’s hospital infrastructure is already feeling the strain. Other than ESIC Hospital in Sector 9, all Covid beds in the city are in private facilities. The other worry is the lack of manpower on the ground — for extensive contact tracing and sealing of containment zones — that the burden of rising Covid cases could cause.
Gurugram MLA Sudhir Singla, during a meeting with the chief minister last week, had proposed a 10-day lockdown “after receiving feedback and suggestions from people”.
“It will help in clearing pendency of test results, fixing loopholes in contract tracing, reducing the load on hospitals and augmenting health infrastructure,” the MLA had told TOI, adding that after relaxations in the lockdown, cases had been rapidly rising and Gurugram had emerged as a “district of concern” in the country.